SOP: what is it and why? A new microsystem-integration technology paradigm-Moore's law for system integration of miniaturized convergent systems of the next decade

In the past, microsystems packaging played two roles: 1) it provided I/O connections to and from integrated circuits (ICs) or wafer-level packaging (WLP), and 2) it interconnected both active and passive components on system level boards, referred to as systems packaging. Both were accomplished by interconnections or multilayer wiring at the package or board level. More recently, the IC devices have begun to integrate not only more and more transistors, but also active and passive components on an individual chip, leading the community to believe that someday there may be a single-chip complete system, referred to as system-on-chip (SOC). This can be called horizontal or two-dimensional (2-D) integration of IC blocks in a single-chip toward end-product systems. The community began to realize, however, that such an approach presents fundamental, engineering, and investment limits, as well as computing and communication limits for wireless and wired systems over the long run. This led to 3-D packaging approaches, often referred to as system-in-package (SIP). The SIP, while providing major opportunities in both miniaturization and integration for advanced and portable electronic products, is a subsystem, limited by the CMOS process just like the SOC. Some existing and emerging applications, however, include sensors, memory modules and embedded processors with DRAMs. More recent 3-D solutions, which incorporate stacked package approaches, offer solutions toward faster time-to-market and business impediments that have plagued MCM deployment for the past decade. There is a new emerging concept called system-on-package (SOP). With SOP, the package, not the board, is the system. As such, SOP is beginning to address the shortcomings of both SOC and SIP, as well as traditional packaging which is bulky, costly, and lower in performance and reliability than ICs, in two ways: 1) It uses CMOS-based silicon for what it is good for, namely, for transistor integration, and the package, for what it is good for, namely, RF, optical, and digital integration by means of IC-package-system codesign. The SOP package, therefore, overcomes both the computing limitations and integration limitations of SOC, SIP, MCM, and traditional system packaging. It does this by having global wiring as well as RF, digital, and optical component integration in the package, not in the chip. The SOP, therefore, includes both active and passive components in thin-film form, in contrast with indiscrete or thick-film form, including embedded digital, RF, and optical components, and functions in a microminiaturized package or board.